VOICETheater views the Dust Bowl
When Shauna Kanter was directing Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure in Abilene, Texas, she was awakened one night by the wind. “It was only a minor dust storm,” she recalled, “but it sounded like a dying animal screaming.” Along with a backstory about her third great-grandfather, a Hungarian Jewish peddler who plied his trade on foot from the East Coast to settle in Missouri, the screaming wind was among the seeds that grew into her play Birds on a Wire, about Midwestern farmers in the Dust Bowl of the 1930s.
Kanter’s VOICETheatre will present four performances of the play at the Byrdcliffe Theatre in Woodstock, before its run at the Sanctuary Arts Initiative in Manhattan. The Thursday, June 6, opening will be a benefit for Catskill Mountainkeeper, highlighting the parallels between the environmental disaster of the Dust Bowl and the current controversy over hydrofracking for natural gas.
Part family drama and part cautionary history lesson, Birds on a Wire tells the story of the Rositzky family, as they struggle against foreclosure of their farm, and two brothers fight over a young woman. Kanter compared the ongoing efforts to promote fracking, which downplay the risk of poisoning the water supply, with the deception that attracted settlers to the Midwest during World War I.
“The American West was expanding,” she explained. “The railroad companies were sending pamphlets all over the world in different languages saying, ‘We have free land for you,’ or land that costs pennies an acre, with tree-lined avenues, wells, schools. People came, got off the trains, and there was nothing.”
In her research, she discovered that among the enticements was the claim that “if you tear up prairie grass, it will create rain. Where the plow goes, the rain will follow. It’s analogous to what’s going on today with the fracking issue, when gas companies prey on farmers who are in need.”
With the German blockade of shipping, the Allies needed a source of wheat to feed their troops, and the U.S. government joined in the effort to lure farmers to the Midwest. Russian and Eastern European Jews had the chance to own land for the first time in history. They plowed up the soil as instructed, and in the 1920s, the price of wheat skyrocketed, only to crash in 1929, along with the stock market, when the market for wheat was glutted. Then came the drought.
“There had always been droughts,” related Kanter, “but the prairie grass, which had taken thousands of years to create, had held down the soil.” Now there was nothing to stop the dry earth from blowing in the wind. From Texas to Montana and up into Canada, hundreds of billions of acres turned into billowing clouds of dust.
“That’s the background for the Rositzky family,” said Kanter. “The settlers had this incredible tenacity of the Judeo-Christian work ethic — it’s in the fabric of this country. They decided they would just farm more, which made it even worse. The price of wheat went from $7 a bushel to 19 cents. So here they are, dealing with dust storms, economic conditions, and the father has begun to mortgage off the farm, piece by piece.”
Against this backdrop of disaster, the older brother marries a young girl, then has to go away to work and leave her at home, where she and the younger brother fall in love. The stage is set for a family struggle that is sometimes humorous, often poignant, and illuminates a theme of forgiveness, said Kanter. “It’s about coming to understand each other’s actions in difficult times. Family’s family, and that’s who you have.”
The play was well-received at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland and at performances back in Abilene, where, said Kanter, “People loved it. There were people in the audience who had been children during the period of the play. They were shaken by it.”
The actors include Dean Nolen, from the original Broadway cast of Mamma Mia!, Jessica Crandall and John Gazzale, who were seen in VOICETheatre’s local production of Hay Fever two years ago, Jordan Feltner, Megan Bones, and Michael Mills.
The highly polished productions of Kanter’s company range from goofy comedies such as last winter’s Seasons Greetings to plays of political import, including Pushing Through, which brought Palestinians and Israelis together onstage in 1988, at LA MAMA in New York and on tour in the U.S. and Great Britain. This year, VOICETheatre partners with New Yorkers Against Fracking, Catskill Mountainkeeper, NYH2O, and The Sane Energy Program to raise awareness and funds for the fight against fracking.
Violet Snow
VOICETheatre presents Birds on a Wire, written and directed by Shauna Kanter, opening at the Byrdcliffe Theatre in Woodstock on Thursday, June 6, at 8 p.m., with a benefit performance and reception for Catskill Mountainkeeper. The benefit evening will feature wine, hors d’oeuvres, and a presentation by Kathleen Nolan, High Peaks Regional Director, of Catskill Mountainkeeper. Shows on Friday and Saturday, June 7 and June 8, are also at 8 p.m., and the final upstate performance is at 2 p.m. on Sunday, June 9. Tickets are $22, except for the June 6 benefit, which will cost $35. For reservations, call 845-679-0154. The play will run June 13-30 at the Sanctuary Arts Initiative, 410 West 40th Street, New York City. See https://voicetheatre.org for details.
